Penguin Watch Talk

How often do you see chicks and eggs?

  • j-walk by j-walk

    Obviously I'm new to penguinwatch if I'm asking this question. Twenty images in and I haven't noticed any chicks or eggs and was wondering if they are a rare sight. If not rare, perhaps I'm not identifying correctly.

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish moderator, translator in response to j-walk's comment.

    Hi,

    As for the eggs, they're pretty rarely seen in the images. But chicks are very common in the data set. We mark penguins as chicks until they have got all the signs of maturity which are different for each species:

    Gentoos: chicks are rather grey and dirty white/cream without white head patches. Adults have black and white feathers and black chins/throats. Both have got red beaks and feet.

    Rockhoppers: chicks are dark brown with dirty cream stomach feathers and dark beak. Adults have yellow/white head whiskers and red beaks.

    Adelies: chicks are completely dark brown when small and when white feathers start to appear, they have just their throats white. Adults are black and white, sometimes they have got white circles around eyes visible.

    Chinstraps: chicks are grey and cream. Adults are black and white with clear strip over their chin.

    Kings: chicks are brown and very very fuzzy. Adults are grey and white with yellow patches.

    All of them are displayed in the field guide and you can switch their images while classifying to make sure however they don't record the species anyhow.

    Hope this is helpful. Feel free to ask when in troubles.

    Cheers,

    Zuzi

    Posted